


Creatures of Love

by morphogenesis



Series: Crashing Verse [2]
Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Kid Fic, M/M, Multi, My motives are complex, Sequel, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:35:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27170102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morphogenesis/pseuds/morphogenesis
Summary: Sequel to"Crashing in the Name of Science."Years and years later, and the survivors of the Rhizome-9 Cohabitation Project just want to live out the rest of their lives in peace. The rest of the Rhizome system has other plans in mind for them, involving clones and experiments and space politics. This is how they live after the end of everything they knew.
Relationships: Carlos/Diana (Zero Escape), Light Field/Kurashiki Aoi, Tenymouji Junpei/Kurashiki Akane/Phi
Series: Crashing Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983200
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	1. There to mend, if I bleed

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to ["Crashing in the Name of Science."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9171778/chapters/20822851) I can't recommend reading it enough.
> 
> Does this fic need to exist? No. Did I write it anyway? Yes. D enabled it!!!!! I’ve always had this Vision(™) of where the characters end up, who they become, what they Do with their lives after deciding to make the best of Rhizome-9 and the moon. And yes it involves kids because I love kidfic, if you don’t this is not the story for you. So with that, enjoy??? Fic title by Talking Heads. Chapter titles from "You Are My Sun" by Sun Kil Moon.
> 
> ETA 2/16/21: This has been discontinued.

Diana was coming off the tail end of a very long shift when she got a much-anticipated message.

_Akane having baby. Will call when over._

That was the simple message that made her bounce on her feet. Her co-worker asked what was up and she said, “Oh just a message from home.”

‘Home’ was Rhizome-9, a research facility that had once housed her as part of an experiment that ripped her from her home and old life, decades in the past. She’d resented the place for so long, but now while she resided in another Rhizome as a local doctor, she missed her first home. Having the new baby as an excuse to go home instead of their semi-annual ‘State of the 9ers’ meeting, which could range from drab to heated, was welcome.

Diana almost danced on the way home, arriving there to find Carlos making dinner as opposed to going to the cafeteria and Rosemary at his side, pulling at his elbow to let her help.

“Rosie,” he said, “Let me cook.”

“You’ll do it wrong,” she complained. “You always overcook the spinach.”

Having a precocious daughter was both a blessing and a curse. Rosemary had been born in Diana’s last year of medical school, making for an extreme final semester between the baby who cried until she could crawl and make her own way in the world, and the husband who was also completing nursing school simultaneously. Still, she didn’t regret Rose, as she called her. Rose was the best thing that had happened to her on the moon, followed only by her dad.

“I think I know— Hey, it’s Mommy,” Carlos said to distract Rose. 

She took the bait, bouncing over to Diana and going, “Mommy, Mommy,” as if Diana couldn’t see that she was right there.

“Hi, baby,” Diana said, bending down to kiss the top of Rose’s head the way she did every night when she came home. “What did you do with Daddy today?” It was a delicate balance of schedules to make sure someone was with Rose after school. School and the chance of a life outside of a small, insular group, was what made them stay here, in a Rhizome far from their friends. For Rosemary’s future. When Diana was pregnant she was scared she’d never be able to give Rose a future worth having. She persevered but only at the cost of her sanity for six months (she’d found out about Rose at three).

Rose babbled about the ins and outs of her day, especially excited to show Diana some drawing she’d done because ‘Mine is better than Daddy’s.’

“That sounds good,” Diana agreed. “Are you gonna let him cook though?”

“Mommy,” Rose said, her eyes almost rolling in her head.

“I have a secret,” Diana offered.

“What?”

“Akane is having her baby!”

“Really?” Rose was fascinated with babies, perhaps going through a phase some little girls did, and she constantly asked if they’d be able to go and visit when Akane was done. They had to keep telling her it took time to grow and birth a baby; in her childlike ephemeral understanding of time, it should’ve taken no time at all.

“Really!” Carlos said. “They didn’t tell me!” Big brother felt excluded, Diana saw.

“You know Junpei, I’m oneesan.”

“We’ll have words.” Carlos bent over and pulled Rose in by the shoulders. “Are you excited, Rosie?”

“Yeah! Can we go see it?”

“Him,” Diana corrected. “They’re gonna name him Osamu.” She was always privy to the best gossip as after almost ten years, Junpei called her first even before Carlos. That was the friendship they’d carved out together over a decade; she couldn’t imagine her life without him.

“O-sa-mu,” Rose sounded out. “That’s a silly name.”

“Rose, that’s his name.” He would be her little brother, sort of. Diana tickled her sides. “Behave.”

“I am!”

“It’s time to schedule a trip home,” Carlos said.

“Yeah,” Diana agreed. She smiled and took in Carlos and Rose, the greatest part of her large Rhizome family, and then stepped in for a group hug. “It’ll be nice to go home.”

She and Carlos exchanged a look, the one married couples said to say, ‘We’ll talk later.’ They both knew what was on the other’s mind.

**

It was a nice day when everyone was home. People bustling to and fro, greeting each other and chit-chatting, catching up, eating together. It made Rhizome-9 homey.

And Junpei was excited to have more hands for inventory. Keeping the Rhizome a home was a lot of work for five people as opposed to ten. He felt he spent all day working: cleaning, organizing, feeding people, talking to other Rhizomes, and keeping every 9er in communication with each other. He never was a social butterfly but now he was the one everyone came to.

And today everyone came home.

He was distracted from the good mood as he woke up feeling sick; groggy, nauseous, weak. He didn’t have time to go to the ADAM before they arrived and he didn’t think it was worrisome anyway. Something must’ve come in on a shipment and he caught it. They’d be fine. As long as he didn’t pass anything on to his newborn son, currently still resting in the infirmary with Akane, who was under Phi, Sigma, and a midwife’s very careful watch as she’d had a complicated labor.

He hoisted himself out of bed, got dressed, and joined Akane at the meeting point. He couldn’t pick who he was most excited to see between them: Carlos or Diana first. Aoi and the Fields were coming later.

Diana emerged first, followed by her husband, tugging their distractible young daughter by the hand. Said daughter, Rosemary, was five and a gem by all accounts. Junpei had watched her grow up mostly via video chat at this point; he hoped they’d move back at some point but the two had spent so long in medical and nursing school to turn away from their new home. Hmph.

“Hi!” Diana called, coming towards him with her arms open and Junpei, resigned to it, stepped into them to let her hug him. Her hugs felt like what eating Akane’s cinnamon sugar cookies felt like.

“Phiiiii!” Rosemary called, unlatched herself from her father’s hand and ran to Phi, nearby, who knelt down and opened her arms as well. Rosemary’s strawberry blonde head buried itself in the crook of Phi’s neck and Phi squeezed her with a smile on her face. It was clear who Rosemary’s favorite was and vice-versa.

Junpei got strongarmed into another hug from Carlos and then set himself free, bending over and ruffling their daughter’s hair before stepping back. They made the necessary small talk about the trip before letting them go back to the quarters the others had never emptied out for them. Rosemary latched on to Phi’s side and begged her to go play in the garden. Phi acquiesced.

Watching them go, Akane folded her hands over her stomach and hummed to herself. It had taken all of her strength, but she had dragged herself out of bed to greet them; Sigma and Sean had agreed to watch Osamu together.

“They’re worried about something,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Carlos,” she said with a smile. “He can’t hide anything from me.” Add him to the list, then.

“What do you think it’s about?”

“That, I don’t know.”

“Yet.”

“Exactly.” Akane took his hand and swung it between them.

**

Aoi bounced his leg all the way back to Rhizome-9; even when Light put his hand on his knee to soothe him. Sometimes all the other had to do was touch him and he’d chill out, but not today. He felt guilty that he hadn’t been there for Akane and her new baby the very moment her son was born.

Clover was talking a mile a minute about work, and Aoi nodded but wasn’t really listening. Sensing this, she said, “If you have a better idea, speak up.” She was talking about a deal they were trying to close between two Rhizomes. They carved their livings out as negotiators, brokering deals between Rhizomes with terse relations, and they were very good at their jobs. It was hard to take time away from work, but his sister’s new baby was worth it, and being on friendly terms and close with Aoi, the Fields came as well.

“I think you’ve got a point,” Aoi said, appeasing her. “We could convince them to share if we pointed out they’ve done it before.”

Clover felt dissatisfied, never bothering to hide her feelings from anyone, and Aoi tried again to soothe her before her brother said, “I promise we’ll talk later.”

“Fine, if you guys enjoy falling behind.”

“I’m distracted,” Aoi admitted.

“Right, your sister’s baby.”

“We can take a break,” Light said.

When they arrived, they were descended upon by the rest of the Rhizome, this time Akane holding a tiny baby Aoi was desperate to meet and hold and make feel safe.

Osamu’s first reaction to his uncle holding him was a noise of displeasure, then screwing his fists and face up and whining. 

“Hey!” Aoi protested.

“He did that to his Papa,” Akane laughed, and offered to take him back. Aoi refused on principle. This kid would totally like him! “Niichan, don’t take it personally.”

“I’m not!”

After some fussing, Osamu settled down in his arms; the Fields were curious but dodged holding him. Aoi made soft noises at him and Osamu gurgled back, and he felt they were connected. This was his nephew and also a new Kurashiki, someone who could relate to him on a level nobody else could.

“How are you doing?” he asked Akane when they were standing apart from the others.

“Exhausted,” she admitted. “Can you cover for me so I can go to sleep?”

“Always, kid,” he said, leaning over and pecking her forehead.

“Come here, Osamu,” she said gently.

“I got him. Or his dad does. Whatever.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Akane rattled off a list of basic likes and dislikes (how did a newborn have dislikes?), and when she went to lay down she kissed her baby and then left. Aoi was left holding him.

“So. Who’s gonna help?”

The Fields both let out a short laugh.

**

Dinner was harried, between two kids including one a mere few days old, and adults who hadn’t seen each other in months. There was talking, laughing, arguing, frantic attempts to comfort Osamu before Diana calmly took him, hushing him gently and bouncing him in her arms in an experienced mom way until he quieted.

“Just like Rosie,” Carlos said.

“No, nothing comforted Rose,” Diana said.

“Hey!” Rosemary interjected. Diana laughed apologetically.

“Somebody is tired,” she cooed. “Let’s put you to bed after dinner, okay?”

“Okay,” Akane mumbled, clearly about to nod off at the table. Her wife nudged her but it was hard with Rosemary seated in her lap. 

Osamu started to pass out in Diana’s arms, and she smiled on him.

“So,” Clover began, cutting through the moment, “has anyone gotten any...weird questions lately?” Her brother put his hand on her arm but she gently removed him before saying, “About Rhizome-18?”

“We got a call,” Junpei admitted, half-interrupted by taking Osamu back from Diana. He was so gentle, like Osamu was a baby bird or crystal. “But I thought it was another reporter to be honest.” In the past they’d attracted curious onlookers, wannabe writers who offered to ‘tell their story,’ but it was just that: the writer’s story. Nobody here understood them, what it was like to come from the Earth of decades ago. But enough people certainly wanted to.

“No,” Diana said, her eyes askance at Carlos.

“We don’t leave the lab long enough to know,” Sigma said with a nudge to Phi and Sean, seated on either side of him.

“It’s just murmurs,” Light said, “But somebody wants to know the whole story of what went on there.”

“Well that ain’t gonna happen,” Aoi added, looking around the table. “It’s over and done with, no point in rehashing it.”

“Nobody was ever tried for it, but people are curious,” Clover added.

“It’s been ten years,” Carlos said suddenly, dragging his fork across his plate. “We’re fine.”

“It wasn’t our fault,” Akane added with certainty. She always believed that.

“Hey Rosie,” Phi said, jostling Rosemary in her lap gently. “Why don’t you go play with Sean?”

Sean took the cue and left with Rose, holding her hand. Times like these Phi wished Gab was still here.

“We can argue about fault all day, there’s no way anyone could hold _us_ criminally liable without also slinging mud at Free the Soul, and nobody’s about to do that,” Phi said. For better or worse, they had to make peace with them if they wanted to survive up here. So they had, and things were...not fine, but they were left alone besides their nagging consciences.

“Yeah,” Diana said uneasily. “I’m… I’m not that hungry anymore,” she said quickly, before standing up to follow Rosemary and Sean.

“Diana?” her husband called after her, before getting up to follow her.

Rhizome-18 was Diana’s ghost, her responsibility in her eyes. Phi had never been able to convince her otherwise.

“Welcome home, everybody,” Junpei said.

**

Diana smoothed the edge of the sheets down over Rosemary, who uneasily lied in bed.

“Me and Daddy are right here, and Phi is right down the hall if you need a hug, okay?”

“The third door,” Rosemary repeated.

“Right. Say goodnight to Daddy.” 

Carlos took her place, kissed Rosemary, and then he and Diana left her tucked in to talk in the garden. They left the lights on and Rose hugging a stuffed dog; she’d never seen a dog in person and originally the toy was bought well before she was born, when Diana was crying that Gab had died and Carlos had bought it for her because it was a small off-white stuffed dog.

On their walk they decided to cover the whole Rhizome, partly to see what had changed and partly to see their friends without disturbing them. 

Phi and Akane were in the infirmary, Osamu sleeping in a bassinet beside Akane’s bed. Phi sat on Akane’s bedside, talking to her and holding her hand, and Akane sleepily nodded before Phi gently lay her down.

Aoi and Sigma were catching up by Aoi’s hydroponic farm in a warehouse, Aoi gesturing emphatically so perhaps Sigma’s care was less than adequate.

Junpei and the Fields were in the lounge; Junpei waved Carlos and Diana over but they kept moving.

Carlos and Diana ended up in the garden, finding themselves alone. They sat by the old garden that held fond memories for them, and Diana examined the flowers and vegetables, satisfied they were being well-taken care of.

“Did we really have nothing to share at dinner?” Carlos asked, peering around the room to make sure they were alone.

“Well you didn’t say anything.”

“I didn’t want to worry Akane and Junpei with the baby,” he said weakly. “What about you?”

“I didn’t want us to do what we always do—everyone starts yelling and nothing gets done. I wanted to talk to Phi first but I can’t get her alone because of the baby.”

“It’s cute how much she loves Osamu.”

Before he was born, Akane and Phi had made it clear that Osamu was also _Phi’s_ son, Junpei’s opinion on the matter being that he hadn’t managed to get rid of Phi yet so might as well also call her ‘Mom.’ The three of them seemed to like their first week of parenthood; Diana wished she and Carlos had had another pair of hands when Rosemary was a baby. They would see.

“Yeah… So we have to tell them.”

A week before they left, someone approached Diana at work, asking her to talk about her time at Rhizome-18. She didn’t know anyone outside of the 9ers still knew she’d been there. The old residents obviously weren’t around to tell and she didn’t talk about it with anyone who hadn’t experienced it. They’d never been questioned about the massacre; it was weird someone wanted to know years after the fact. It had been handwaved by Free the Soul, and nobody else with influence had questioned them because they were too useful up here to try.

Diana turned them away and tried to ignore it until they approached Carlos too, who was less nice about it when they mentioned D-9. As far as Diana knew, only Junpei had ever figured out who had really killed D-9, and he didn’t judge her because he’d killed D-5. They also didn’t talk about that. 

Diana wasn’t about to start; Rosemary didn’t need to know that about her history. She only knew Mommy and Daddy came from a place called Earth a long time ago, and Earth was too sick to go back to. She knew she’d had an aunt and grandparents, but that they were gone now. She knew enough to remain innocent.

“I’m scared to,” Carlos admitted.

“Scared to tell them what?” a voice asked behind them. Sean stood there, playing with his hands. “Sorry, I was...just here.”

“Oh, Sean,” Diana said, crossing her arms and unable to help her annoyance. “Can you keep it quiet for right now? We want to tell them.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s been years. Have any of you people learned to just talk to each other?”

Diana laughed. “Someday. Sorry.”

“Whatever it is, it’ll be okay,” he said. “Promise.”

He left, and when he was gone Carlos pulled her in and pressed his forehead to hers. “He’s right.” His brain was a mess, but Diana embraced the mess of her husband. She never wanted to get married but they did when Rose was born to make sure they could both make decisions for her in case something happened.

Diana wanted to go home, to her place and her job and her life that made sense, where she could forget that she’d never really belong on the moon. Diana wanted to go _home_ sometimes, to Earth, but here she was. Forever. And she had to live with her choices.

She just wanted them to be her choices, not have her hand forced by the past coming back.

“I get dibs on Junpei, he’ll be nice,” she said.

“No, I want it.”

“Oh, right, they’re your firstborns.”

“The difference is that Rosie actually listens to me.”

“What happens to Rose if they arrest us?”

“Somebody here would take her.”

“No. If they arrest _all_ of us.”

“They can’t, we were victims too.”

“But try telling them that.”

**

Aoi swore sometimes Light kissed him just to shut him up, but, hey, it worked. He’d been ranting about the farm and Sigma’s care for it when he got kissed.

“You realize you’ll live.”

“Eh. Sometimes I just wanna complain.”

“We’ve been together for years; I’m aware.”

“Hey, don’t pretend you’re perfect,” Aoi said gently.

Light shrugged, an action adorably lopsided as he’d taken off his arm. He was shirtless and skinny and pale as ever. Sometimes Aoi wondered what might’ve been, like if he’d gotten to Carlos first, but he was happy with his choice here.

“So, they’re acting weird, right?” Aoi asked.

“Yes. As usual—”

“We’re not communicating. So let’s ask.”

“Agreed.” 

Aoi flopped out next to him and said, “I’m gonna check on Akane.”

“Bye, Aoi.”

Akane was awake and nursing her baby when he entered; having seen her naked in all stages, he didn’t feel the need to ask her to cover up. She was wincing a little but Osamu seemed happy.

“Still tired?”

She nodded.

“I’ll be quick.” He sat down on her bed, plucking at her foot through the covers. “Carlos and Diana are hiding something.”

“I know.”

“What should we do?”

“Ask them?”

“You know we never do that,” Aoi joked.

Akane hissed, “Stop that,” at Osamu as he must’ve pulled at her especially hard.

“I’ll handle it.”

“Carlos will talk to me,” Akane said. “Let me do it.”

“Think Sigma knows anything?”

“Not really. He doesn’t come out of the lab if he can help it. Just like old times.”

Aoi knew their connection was based in another timeline and he didn’t question it; they didn’t hang out exactly but they did always defend each other. “What call did you guys get?”

“Just asking us to talk about Rhizome-18. We ignored it. A lot of people ask us.”

Aoi nodded. He escaped the worst of it because he was never home and had learned how to pass as a normal citizen up here. 

“What if they come back?” Akane asked, distracted. “What about Osamu then?”

“We won’t let anyone take him. It’ll be fine.”

Akane didn’t look like she believed that.

Aoi didn’t know either.

**

At 3:00, Sean woke everyone up with a cry of “Visitors!” down the hall.

Junpei was familiar with the schedule for visitors; he made it. Nobody was supposed to come here unless invited, it was part of the independence Aoi and co. had brokered back in the day. They were a private, fickle people.

Nobody who came here unannounced was a friend.

He poked around mentally and found people waking up, groggy and feeling anxious from the last time people showed up uninvited. Everyone opened doors, poking their heads out and tired. Rosemary looked particularly unappreciative of the interruption, still holding on to her toy dog and glaring at anyone who made eye contact with her.

“Go back to bed, sweetheart,” Carlos said, putting a hand on her head. “Don’t come out unless me and Mommy say.”

She grumbled but ducked back inside.

Junpei’s first order of business was to check on his wife and child; who were doing fine in the infirmary. Phi said she’d stay with them while he went out, and while he wanted to protest he didn’t, thinking he could best protect everyone while going out. Aoi joined his side, Sigma behind them as Sigma could be their Rhizome interpreter based off his memories of living there. Diana trailed them.

They opened the door so nobody would blow it open. Waiting for them was a small group, three people standing out and a few people who looked like guards flanking them. Immediately Junpei was reminded of Free the Soul, though they didn’t wear the insignia.

“Who’s in charge here?” a man said.

The group was quiet for a moment before Junpei decided to throw himself on the sword. “I am. What do you want?”

“We’re with the Greater Rhizome System Commission. We have a warrant to search the premises.”

“The Hell you do,” Junpei retorted. “Turn around, we’re an independent Rhizome.” They had never officially joined the commission, preferring to trade to get by. Carlos and Diana had technically given up that privilege by joining another Rhizome, but Junpei wasn’t about to point that out.

“The Commission has dominion when it involves a crime committed against another Rhizome under its protection. Rhizome-18 was one such facility.”

“Oh there’s no way _that_ place was a part of you—” Aoi started, and snorted when the other held up a hand.

“It was, and its residents were members. Two of you here are under suspicion of committing capital murder in Rhizome-18, and the rest of you are under investigation to determine culpability in the massacre there.”

“That was Free the Soul! You would know that if you—” Diana exclaimed, then stopped herself, shaking her head.

“Well who do you want?” Junpei said quietly, imagining his freedom going goodbye.

“Junpei Tenmyouji and Carlos Frazier.”

“Fine, you found me,” Aoi said suddenly. “I’m Junpei.”

“No you fucking aren’t,” Junpei said, elbowing him in the side. “I am.” He wasn’t about to let Aoi take the fall no matter how terrified he was.

“What’s your evidence?” Sigma said, arms crossed. “Even with a warrant, we’re allowed to limit the area of your search unless it’s all-encompassing.”

“There’s nothing stopping us from arresting those who don’t cooperate. Identify yourself.”

“Dr. Sigma Klim, and go to Hell.”

“You don’t want Carlos,” Diana said, playing with her hair. But she didn’t, couldn’t say more, when Junpei made eye contact with her and he tried to look stern.

“We have a right to convene and defend ourselves legally,” Sigma pointed out. “We don’t have to stay here.”

“Fine, but we can take the two people here who aren’t residents of Rhizome-9.”

“No, you won’t,” Sigma said, his tone taking a harsh edge to it.

“Let us conduct the search or everyone in this place is in contempt.”

“Fine. You won’t find anything anyway,” Junpei muttered.

To say they trashed the place would be an understatement. The group, including everyone who’d at first stayed behind, was forced to gather in the warehouse while the rest of the facility was searched.

“Is there _anything_ that can be used against us?” Clover asked.

“Maybe something stored in the quantum computer,” Sigma admitted.

“I’m sorry,” Sean said, “I-I stored everything I recorded in there. I don’t have either of the murders you’re accused of, though, because I wasn’t there or functional for them.”

“So there’s that,” Junpei said. Beside him, Akane was rigid; Phi having taken Osamu, who was fussy and tired, and pacing with him not far away. “At worst they can take me and Carlos.”

“No they won’t!” Akane said fiercely. “Who can even implicate you?”

“If they interrogate us and we don’t have our stories straight…” Light said, to which Aoi elbowed him.

“They can’t take Carlos,” Diana said quietly. Beside her Rosemary was clutching her dog, looking between the adults with utter confusion and anxiety.

“Diana.”

“The less we know, the better,” Junpei said quickly, looking at her firmly. “Everyone just tell the truth as you remember it. We spent so much time apart there’s no way every person knows enough to incriminate themselves or each other.”

“Some of us could be considered more culpable than others,” Carlos warned, obviously not wanting to point out his own wife, the former ‘Mother.’

“We opened a door, at best,” Clover said, hands on her hips. “If we go down for that, this justice system is a joke.”

“And that won’t stop them if they want us to go down,” Phi said as she returned to the group; Osamu asleep on her chest. “Someone within Free the Soul has to have engineered this.”

Sigma said, “Why? They killed them all, they can’t point a finger at us without incriminating themselves.”

“But who’s easier to take down? A big cult with powerful friends all over the system, or us?” Phi said. “Nobody knows anything, nobody says anything.”

“But Sean…” Sigma said, rubbing one arm. “Sorry, Sean. But you’re property up here, not a person. I don’t think so, of course, but the law does. They can confiscate _you_ and see your memories of that time.”

“Nobody has to know he’s a robot yet,” Phi hissed. “Sean, you’re a human right now.”

“Okay.” If Sean was offended, he didn’t show it.

“Nobody knows anything,” Junpei repeated. He touched Akane, still and silent, and he could sense her racing thoughts, trying to spin a way out of this.

Junpei knew how fucking unfair justice could really be; back in his detective days he’d seen cops trump up false charges as an excuse to arrest somebody so they could bust them about a different, unrelated crime. He’d been taken in once because they assumed he looked like another suspect, and treated him like scum until his boss had bailed him out and helped him disappear.

In the end the intruders took the computer components they could carry out, some journals and books, and hinted they could take Junpei and Carlos if they felt like it, but instead ordered them to stay confined for now. 

“Of course, there’s nothing legal keeping you here yet. But it will look very suspect if any of you leave,” the leader said.

“I have to work,” Diana pointed out. “My husband and I are both medical professionals—”

“And your husband is a person of interest. There’s nowhere you can go where we won’t find him.”

“Are you threatening us?”

“I’m informing you of the law.” He considered Rosemary, who stepped behind Carlos. “That child looks tired. The authorities won’t look highly on you keeping the children here with suspected criminals.”

“You’ve done enough here,” Akane finally said. “You’ve taken what you came for. Leave.” Akane was not a person to be defied lightly, so they did.

Rosemary, knowing only that the adults were upset and not understanding why, began to whimper. Carlos knelt down on one knee and put his arms around her. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said. Diana joined them and clung to her family.

Sometime during the exchange, Sigma had gone to Phi and put his arm over her shoulders; the two met eyes, looking torn. The Fields held hands and Aoi stood near them, protective. Junpei sighed and ran his hands down his face. When he looked, Akane had put her hand on Sean’s head; it was odd as though she was never unkind for him she’d never formed the attachment to him that, say, Phi and Sigma had.

“Nobody knows what you are,” she ordered. Sean nodded.

Junpei wished it were that easy.

**

Phi handed Osamu off to Aoi, who said he couldn’t sleep so might as well bond with his nephew. She wanted Akane to join her but, understandably, Akane followed her brother and baby.

She and Sigma went to the lab where they could be undisturbed. When they were alone, Phi let her guard down enough to say, naked, “What the hell do we do?”

“We’ll figure something out,” he said. “You can figure it out and I’ll stand here and look pretty like usual,” he joked.

“I am not in the mood, Sigma,” she said flatly.

“I have friends in Rhizome-37. Aoi has to know a dozen people who could hide us.”

“And then what? We hide forever? There are only so many places we can go.”

“Then tell me your ideas!”

“I don’t want to never see Akane and Osamu again,” Phi said quietly. “Diana. Rosemary. Junpei, even.” She didn’t have to say Sigma as she assumed they’d always be together, no matter what happened.

“Then you won’t,” Sigma said. He didn’t touch her. “Phi, trust me.”

“I do,” she said, before stepping forward and resting her forehead against his chest. She was exhausted already, she didn’t know what to say or do, and she couldn’t make this go away. She was used to fighting the world; she was not used to seeing defeat so clear and stark before her.

“At worst they can take Junpei and Carlos, and we’ll fight the charges. Their evidence has to be circumstantial at best.”

“I mean it. They’re looking for fall guys for what happened at Rhizome-18. I just can’t prove it.”

“So I’ll help you, and we’ll fight this.”

“Thanks, Sigma. For right now, can you be quiet?”

“Do you want me to leave you be?”

“No, actually.”

They held on to each other.

**

Diana paced furiously. She was angry at the entire world, at those bastards who threatened to take her baby away, at herself for things she couldn’t change.

“But you didn’t do anything!” she said.

“That’s not how it looks,” Carlos said, leaning back against the wall. They were in the infirmary, normally a familiar and comforting place for Diana, but now it wasn’t the panacea she hoped for. “We...we might have to prepare for the worst.”

“No, I won’t do that. I won’t raise Rose without you.”

“You might not have a choice, Diana.”

“So I’ll tell the truth.”

“How is that better? You won’t. I didn’t pretend it was me just to watch you die now.”

“I never asked you to do that!” She threw her hands down. “I never wanted you to hurt because of me.”

“I don’t blame you,” he said gently. “I love you.”

Like Rosemary earlier, Diana covered her face and sniffled, feeling helpless. She forced herself not to cry, like she was used to. “I love you, too,” she said. “That’s why if they ask me I won’t hide the truth.”

“ _Please_ don’t. You and Rosie are the only family I have left.”

“And you’re all _I_ have left,” she protested. She didn’t say it as a slight to Phi, or Junpei, or the rest of her friends. It was just a fact; Carlos and Rose were the only legal family she had, no matter what weird little tells or pulls she felt towards Phi sometimes. She had been afraid to look and Phi had never pushed. “Please let me save you this time.”

“You know I can’t do that,” he said, and they were at an impasse.

Diana held him anyway.

**

“Niichan, I know you’re angry.”

“Oh, then you’ll hear about it some more!” Aoi was spitting mad, not at Akane but at the rest of the world. He’d paced and thrown his hands around and all but chased people away. He and Akane were in his room; the Fields had retired elsewhere.

Akane patted the space on the bed beside her and Aoi sat down, before taking the lap pillow she offered.

“How’s Junpei?” he asked.

“Frightened, but he won’t say it.” They knew what he’d done; it was a matter of time, Aoi worried, others would too.

“Where’s the baby?”

“Niichan, relax,” she said. “He’s with Junpei. They’re trying to sleep.”

“You should sleep.”

“Well I can’t.” She pet his hair. “Keep me company.”

“Okay.” He rubbed her knee. “We can run away.”

“No, we can’t. I doubt they’ll find anything. If they had something they would’ve just arrested us.”

“They’re trying to build a case.”

“And we’ll deal with that when we get there. I can see a few ways this will end, I just don’t know how to get there.”

“What’s the worst ending?”

“I think you know that.”

Aoi guessed he did.

“Well what’s the best ending?”

“We get left alone. I’m trying to figure out how to get there.”

“I’ll help.”

“I know you will. Call your important friends. See what they know.”

He liked being given a task. It made him feel like he could do something to make this all work. “Okay.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

**

The morning dawned, restless and too soon. Junpei’s anger had died out into fear, and then tiredness. Being up with Osamu hadn’t helped; he didn’t want a bottle or to be changed, just to be held and bounced and walked with for the better part of the early morning. He’d been told newborns would sleep a lot, but Diana and Carlos had clearly lied. Still, Junpei couldn’t imagine being away from him, even if he had committed a crime to end up in this situation. He wouldn’t apologize for D-5; he was going to kill everyone and Junpei did the world a favor by ridding it of a Left. He remembered what Dio was like; there was simply no saving some people.

After Osamu finally conked out, Junpei lay down beside his bassinet in the infirmary and was dozing off when he heard someone enter. Instantly awake and cursing it, he sat up to see Clover.

“Oh, sorry! I thought you’d be awake,” she said.

“So please let me sleep.”

“Sorry, just one thing.” She dug her toe into the floor. She was wearing cute slippers. “My brother and I agreed we’ll protect you.”

“Thanks.” He didn’t want to think about that.

“So we’re going to call in a few favors and try and find someone who will get us all off. We have to, um, leave. Stop working with Aoi and work for them. Maybe never come back here.”

“That sucks,” Junpei said. He rubbed his eyes. “Is it permanent?”

“Probably. They’re not people to ask for favors from lightly.” But the Fields were of one mind, and when they agreed on something they weren’t ones to argue with. “We’ll do it for you guys. You’re...”

“What?”

“You’re kinda our only family.”

“...Thanks, Clover.” Hopefully she knew that applied to her too. “Can I sleep now?”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, Junpei.”

“I know.”

Junpei lay back down and dozed off, dreamless.

**

Phi couldn’t stop thinking about the last time they had visitors. They’d only wanted to speak to Sigma, and it went as follows:

As usual the Rhizome was quiet, but this time it felt unsettling as Phi walked alone. Without her old friends, the place was empty and haunted. She headed over to Sigma’s wing, walking confidently, delaying the inevitable.

She heard footsteps up ahead and crept around the corner, pressing against a wall to hide. She could see Sigma’s back, firm, rigid, as he was talking to the visitors.

“You understand I can’t do that. This is at the end of the day a residence, not a laboratory.” She couldn’t make out the other side’s argument, but Sigma said, “Well, yes, but— No, I can’t.”

He took a step back, raising his arms. Phi headed towards them.

“Is there a problem here?” she said, thinking of her friend and of Akane, still pregnant and not five minutes away from there.

“Phi—”

“You said you’d be alone,” the stranger said.

“We live here, like Sigma said. I was taking a walk.” Phi shifted her weight, ready to jump, to kick. “If it concerns my house, it concerns me.”

The woman addressed Sigma. “Convince your friend to sell to us. It would still be your home, we’d just rent out the lab.”

“For what?”

“For our purposes.”

“Not good enough. We’re a private residence.”

Cryptically, “There’s nothing stopping us if we want this.”

“So come back when you have a good reason.”

Sigma stood there, arms at his sides, and looked defeated. He and Phi escorted the visitors out and then he said, “You should’ve let me handle that.”

“Who the hell were they?”

“They want to buy this place. Us, essentially. I don’t think we want that, they aren’t anyone we want to be involved with.”

“Well, sometimes you have good judgment,” Phi joked.

“They’ll come back.”

“We’ll be ready.”

Now, with Akane still asleep beside her, Phi couldn’t stop thinking about that exchange. It wasn’t yet connecting in her mind, but it was about to, she knew it.

Akane beside her was snoring. She had fallen asleep easily, and heavy. She’d initially had anxiety right after giving birth, but seeing other people to help with her son helped her relax so now they were alone, trying to rest after the exhausting morning. Everyone was going to meet over a meal later. Phi ran her hand down the length of Akane’s braid. 

Akane stirred when Phi got out of bed. “What time is it?”

“11:00. Go back to sleep.”

“Mmmph. Baby?”

“He’s with Papa. Sleep, Akane.”

“What about you?”

“I’m not tired.”

Akane hugged her waist and pulled her back into bed. “Sleep.”

Phi curled back up with her, smelling the soap in her hair and feeling how soft she still was. Her wife was the best, she thought, the smartest and with the most love in her heart for humankind. Phi started to drift off for real, thinking she should ask Sigma more clarifying questions when they woke up.

Everyone finally gathered around 17:00, unspoken. One person had a thought, and the others echoed it until they gathered in one place; Solipsism Syndrome was useful sometimes. Junpei handed Osamu off to Akane, then Aoi took him. Rosemary trailed behind, holding Diana’s hand. When Rosemary saw Phi she scurried over to her and hugged her legs. Rosemary wasn’t included in their mental link, obviously, and only knew the adults were nervous, so she was confused and scared. Phi patted her head, gave her a nutrient bar and told her to eat that and read her picture book. She was a smart, independent little girl, so she did with a last hug to her parents.

“Nobody knows what I’m talking about,” Aoi began. “It’s like it’s not happening outside.”

“About that,” Phi said, “I don’t know how real this investigation is. Sigma, do you remember those visitors who wanted to buy the Rhizome?”

“Yes.”

“What if they’re pulling strings?”

“How so?” Akane said.

“Well. One possibility is they scare us into a corner and then offer to show up and make it all go away if we sell.” Her theory was formed off of half-images of the future, but the evidence was scarce.

“Or it’s real, and we’re screwed,” Aoi said.

“Then… Then we cooperate for right now, and find a way out of these charges.”

“If there was a camera in that room, I am so screwed,” Junpei pointed out. “D-9’s murderer is probably safe.”

“You can say my name,” Carlos said tersely, looking at his wife.

“We bribe, we lie, whatever it takes,” Phi said. “Keep working,” she instructed the trio of Aoi and the Fields. “Sigma, Sean, inventory what they took. Junpei, if you have any ideas from your detective time, now is the time.”

“I didn’t exactly follow the law.”

“Then you know how to think like a smart criminal.”

Clover said, “And if we lose this place, where do we go? We aren’t useful anymore to Free the Soul.”

“That I don’t know,” Phi admitted. “But we can find a place.”

“What if we have to separate?” Akane asked.

Phi held Akane’s hand. She didn’t answer. Nobody did.

**

“Do you want to play?” Sigma asked Rosemary, offering her some special chalk he said was made to work on the warehouse floor.

Rosemary perked up, accepting the colorful sticks and began sketching out a hopscotch diagram. She held it in her fist, carefully trying to write the numbers on the squares, a system only she understood. “Play with me,” she told Sigma.

Diana watched them with a smile. This was perhaps the first time she’d been able to relax since she came here. Sigma had noticed Rose was clearly bored and offered her the chalk, and now he was awkwardly following her, humming some song Diana vaguely recognized from a time he and Phi had gotten very drunk and sang while they played with no board. They’d fallen down laughing. This was obviously before anyone had kids. 

When Rose asked what he was humming, he taught her some words that made no sense.

“Allamaraine, count to four…” Rose sang, hopping down the steps.

It was just the three of them and it was cute. But Diana couldn’t imagine it being just her and Rose; Carlos needed to be here. Diana didn’t want to be arrested and tried, even if she deserved it. She’d lived this long with what she’d done and punished herself.

Rose wandered off to start hide and seek, ordering Sigma to _really_ count to thirty before looking for her. They shook on it seriously, and she ran off.

“I didn’t know you were so good with kids,” Diana said.

“I’m really not,” Sigma said self-consciously. “Even with my own.”

That was news, but Sigma still absently referenced his whole other life, minus the part where they’d been in love. According to Phi he’d sulked for a few years about it before fully accepting she loved Carlos now, and now they were tentatively building a real friendship.

“Thanks. I know Rose can be kind of demanding.”

“No more so than any five year-old,” he said with certainty. “You’re a good mom.” He paused. “Sorry, that was—”

“No, thank you.” She folded her hands. Would he still think that if he knew she was passively accepting Carlos throwing himself down for her? She opened her mouth, closed it.

She had to tell somebody.

“Where will you go?” she asked.

“Rhizome-37, I think. If Phi will come with me that would be great.”

“I don’t think she’ll leave Akane and Osamu.”

“She said that. I guess it’s just a pipe dream.” He scratched his head. “Our opponents probably are gunning for me because there’s records of me bargaining with Free the Soul to get them inside. At least Sean will be safe when they find out he’s property. He can’t be held liable for something a robot was ordered to do.”

That was good, even if she was mildly offended by referring to vibrant and kind Sean as property. “Hopefully Carlos, Rose, and me can go back home and this is all over,” she said weakly, hands fisting in her skirt.

“I’d like that. Not to say I want to get rid of you, but—”

“I don’t know if it will happen,” she admitted. “Because they have the wrong person for D-9’s death.”

“The less I know—”

“Please.”

He nodded.

“I killed D-9. Not Carlos.” She exhaled.

“I wondered,” he finally said. “You were covered in blood, and it just never made sense that Carlos would do that.” He scoffed. “But on the other hand, I didn’t want to believe it was you.” Back when she was on a pedestal in his mind. “I’ll let you tell the others, okay?”

“Thank you.”

“Hel-lo!” Rose called from within the maze of pallets.

“Coming!” Sigma said, and left Diana stewing.

The stillness of Rhizome-9 always made her restless, except for one place. The chapel was dark and quiet and comforting, and when she noticed someone else there she was grateful. Junpei had actually fallen asleep sitting up in a pew, and she shook him awake though she felt it was the same as waking a sleeping baby.

“Mmm,” he said, almost a whine.

“Go to bed, silly.”

“No, there’s a crying baby there,” he grumbled.

“Well, get used to that. You didn’t have to deal with Rosemary.” She flicked the side of his head. “You know you just have to ask and Carlos and I will watch him.”

“Mmmph.”

Diana sat next to him, the years erasing his wariness of being touched if it was someone he was close to. “I told Sigma who killed D-9,” she said.

Junpei didn’t say anything at first.

“It’s the right thing to do,” she went on. “I can’t let them take Rose’s dad away from her for something he didn’t do.”

“As someone who lost his mom at twenty-two, I can’t imagine losing her at _five_ ,” he said, hard. “You didn’t do that just to do it.”

“But I still deserve to be held accountable. We can pretend it wasn’t our fault all we want, but—”

“Stop it. Stop bringing it up.” A tiny pang of panic in her brain. “There were extenuating circumstances, they can’t keep you away forever,” he said.

“If they do…” she began, but couldn’t finish the thought. Rose, that was it.

“I’ll fight it.”

“I’ll fight yours,” she said.

“Don’t take responsibility for that, too,” Junpei said.

“As someone who lost her dad at twenty-six, I don’t want to put Osamu through that at a week old,” she echoed.

“Don’t bring him up.”

“You can’t help but think about them all the time,” she said. She would protect her little brother and his little family.

“Finally, there you are,” Aoi said behind them. He looked wired as ever, arms crossed. “Come to the lab.”

**

Aoi had a headache. In the past 48 hours he had slept for maybe four of them, dealt with everyone else’s problems, met his nephew, and learned he was one subject of a criminal investigation. He was metaphorically tugging on his collar, wondering if D-1 had survived and told them anything about his spying. He’d never actually seen the body.

They were summoned to the lab by Sean, whose unfortunate news was that their communications system was frozen under orders. They were isolated now, lost. Aoi couldn’t help but feel like he’d stepped into a trap he couldn’t anticipate or see, and useless as he couldn’t do what he was best at here.

“Isn’t this like old times?” Carlos said, but nobody was smiling. Those had been some dark days indeed, with a few highlights here and there: the wedding, New Year’s Eve, hooking up with his partner. Back then they were floating in miserable space, and here they were returning to it.

“We were just ‘recommended’ to stay, right?” Clover said. “Somebody can probably leave.” Her brother touched her shoulder but didn’t protest.

“The least suspicious of us all right now is probably you three,” Phi admitted, still looking at the screen.

“If we left, we could investigate,” Aoi pointed out, locking his fingers behind his head. “Though I don’t like the thought of leaving you guys behind.” He addressed his sister, “You and the baby should come too.”

“No,” Akane said flatly. “I’m not leaving my husband and Osamu is too little to make the trip.”

If he suggested ‘Leave the baby,’ his sister would go nuclear and he’d feel like an asshole, so he didn’t. Instead he said, “Got it. So we’ll go.”

So they made a plan. The trio would leave.

On the way out, Light leaned over and whispered in his ear, “We’re making the right decision.”

“I know.”

**

Junpei smacked his head back against the wall, a little harder than he’d meant to. They were betting on Aoi and the Fields, proven field agents, but still. Sometimes they couldn’t stop squabbling long enough to get work done and _Junpei_ was their shady detective, thank you. But he had a baby, a purpose, and house arrest.

Speaking of his baby, Akane was still staying in the infirmary and said baby was fussing, unable to nap for some reason only he knew.

Junpei sat beside her on the bed and offered to take Osamu, but she declined. Curious about something they’d been unsuccessful at before, he poked in the direction of Osamu’s mind. Babies were all primal urges and id; they didn’t think in words that he could identify and usually he slicked right off the surface. The kids, they couldn’t tell if they would be like the adults yet. Diana didn’t like to probe Rosemary’s mind.

Akane was fascinated and worried Osamu wouldn’t be like them. Junpei reminded her he had a long time still. When he pressed, he had a powerful ache in his belly, filling up his chest, phantom distending his stomach.

“Um, did you burp him after he ate?” he asked Akane, whose face glowed with embarrassment.

“Oh my goodness, poor baby,” she said, scrambling for the cloth at her side. The discomfort disappeared the moment Osamu spat up; Akane still looked unhappy. “I don’t know how I forgot.”

Osamu curled up in the crook of her neck, now cloth-free. The usual scents of Mama, which he couldn’t identify except as ‘Mama,’ who still wasn’t that name but a series of sensations and warmth and safety, comforted him and now he felt sleepy.

Junpei held his breath, touched Osamu’s head. “He’s happy. Because you’re here.”

Akane’s eyes widened. “Do you mean…?”

“Yeah. I feel him.”

Akane grinned.

After his nap, they tested their theory out by having various people hold him. He didn’t have an opinion except curiosity where Mama had gone when Aoi, Diana, or Carlos held him; Sean was uncomfortable so he didn’t quite cry but made a displeased noise and thought; Phi was a win because she was familiar, he had a flash of her trying to play with him and holding him when he was scared; Sigma was familiar enough but not preferred.

Akane, ecstatic now, was rambling about everything they’d be able to do with him as he got older.

“Let him grow up a little first,” Junpei said, tickling him under his chin. He was only mildly offended that he fell into the category of ‘Not as good as Mama, but pretty good.’ He’d have to fix that. _You’re surrounded by everyone who loves you,_ he sent. 

Osamu didn’t understand yet, but he would.

**

Phi couldn’t rest and the baby wasn’t her responsibility yet, so she was in the library, letting Rosemary read a book to her and reading back to her from a slightly harder book. Rose sat in her lap, which grew numb but Phi didn’t move her. She could not imagine letting anyone make her an orphan.

“Yep, crows can’t steal the sun,” she agreed with Rose, who had never seen a crow and never would given that the annihilation of Earth had killed most of its animals. Animals were factory farmed up here and only the useful ones had come up, including some companion animals but Sigma couldn’t convince anyone else to invest in a cat.

“Did people really believe that?”

“Sometime in Japan they did.”

“What’s Japan?”

“It was a bunch of islands where a lot of Mom and Dad’s friends came from on Earth. It was far away from America, where I came from.”

“Would I have grown up in America?”

“Probably, kid. Place called the Southwest, where your parents were from.”

“Oh.” The words really meant nothing to Rose; she could barely picture a place she’d never been. But still she was curious and smart, reading early. Sometimes Phi wondered if she wanted her own kid, but the logistics of having one always stopped her. Plus there was no guarantee it would turn out like Rose.

She knew poor Rose had to be bored all the way out here; Sean was shaped like a kid but he wasn’t one, and Osamu was no fun to play with. A lot of the adults were trying to play with her, but some of them were proving awkward with a kid old enough to argue back.

Phi was with her partly for Rose and partly for herself; she wanted to forget the argument she’d overheard last night between Carlos and Diana. The one where Diana pointed out that Carlos had not killed D-9, she had.

Phi was furious Diana had never told her; she’d had her suspicions but never found a moment to act on them. Or she was a coward and hadn’t wanted to know. Really, both. Now they could potentially lose them both, if Carlos didn’t cave like Phi knew he never would. Honestly the perfect man for Diana, just as stubborn as she was deep down, even if it would kill him.

“I want to find Sigma,” Rose announced, sliding off of Phi’s lap. Their affinity for each other was cute.

“Well, let’s go,” someone said from the doorway, and Phi looked up and saw Diana. She was rubbing one arm and looking at them with a wistful smile.

“Mommy,” Rose called, running over to her. Phi remembered she had complained that it seemed like her parents had no time for her in the past day, which must feel like an age to a child.

“Hey, I want you to do something. Do you think you can find Sigma if you had to search the whoooole Rhizome by yourself?” Diana asked.

“Yeah!”

“Okay. Stay out of the lab or anything too small to get out of. Go!”

Rose ran off and Phi watched. “Is that safe?” she finally said.

“Eh, she walks herself to school all the time and there are only so many places she can go. Can we talk?”

“Sure.” Phi knew whatever they were about to say they couldn’t take back. “You know what I know, after all.”

“I _am_ telling people,” Diana said. “Sigma knows.”

Oh, now there were three people whose asses Phi had to kick. “It’s been years, Diana. You had plenty of time to come clean, and all that time you let Carlos—”

“He did it to save me. He never wanted anyone else to know, in case something like this happened.”

“And now what, he dies for you?”

“He won’t! I’m going to tell them it was me!” Diana scoffed. “It’s way too late to take it back, the least I can do is come clean.”

“You don’t have to die,” Phi said quietly. “Only you and Carlos know what happened. We can think of something. Aoi—”

“I’m terrified,” Diana admitted. “I don’t want to lose my whole life. But Carlos and Rose don’t deserve this.”

“...You’ll make two motherless kids, you know,” Phi said, voice as thin as weak tea.

Diana winced; that was the number one thing they did not speak of. Something they’d only figured out and addressed once, because it was easier not to acknowledge because life was very different now. They’d made different choices that didn’t make that life easier, and they wanted it to be just between them.

“I know. Promise me you’ll take care of your sister,” Diana said, eyes glimmering.

“I don’t have to because you’re going to be fine.”

“Phi.”

“Fine.” She didn’t return the hug. “I’m still pissed off at you.”

“Okay.” Diana sniffed. “Okay.” Then she fled.

Phi picked up her book and threw it at the wall.

**

The visitors came back. Aoi and co. had already left, which they were angry about, but that wasn’t their main business. They’d come to arrest their persons of interest.

Diana interrupted them before they could cuff her husband. “Please, take me.”

“He—”

“—didn’t do it,” she said, ignoring Carlos’ eyes. “I did. I stabbed that Left in the heart because he threatened my friends. Carlos lied to protect me.”

Phi wouldn’t look at her. Junpei told her to shut up. Akane was quiet. Sigma covered his mouth.

“Take ‘em both?” one man said to the other.

“Yes.”

The one blessing is that Rose didn’t see her parents getting arrested, cuffed, and dragged out.

“Everything’s going to be fine!” Akane called after them.

“We’ll get you out!”

“Diana!” Phi said. “I’ll take care of Rose.”

Diana lowered her head.

In the shuttle Diana and Carlos argued, Junpei looking back and forth at the volleys.

“I told you not to do this!”

“I told you I wouldn’t let you!”

“Diana, what about Rosie?”

“You’ll be free and _you_ can take care of her.”

“Not without you!”

Junpei’s face was drawn, no doubt thinking about his own son. “You know Aoi’s working on this,” he added. “I’m sure they’ll tap one of their powerful friends and then—”

“Be quiet,” they both said at the same time.

“Well, fuck me, then,” Junpei muttered.

“I’m not telling them anything,” Carlos swore.

“I’m telling the truth,” she said.

They were at an impasse and silent for the rest of the ride.

They were separated on arrival, and she was taken to a plain white room with no windows.

“Tell us the truth,” they said.

So she did. She told them everything starting from the very beginning, where she was from and why, the experiment, the kidnapping, her brief stint as a cult leader, and then talking about D-9 was easy. Clinical.

“Is that the whole story?” 

“Yes.” God she wished it wasn’t. She had lost count of the times she had wished she could take it all back, make different choices knowing what she knew now.

She was left alone for uncountable moments, then made to write a statement again, then put in a cell.

 _Well,_ Junpei sent, _They definitely have me on camera._

_I’m sorry._

_That’s...it’s not okay, but it’s not your fault._

_I didn’t tell them anything._

_Carlos…_

She didn’t want to rub it in that it was too late.

They let Carlos go the next day. _I’ll get you out,_ he promised.

_Just take care of Rose._

Times like these she wished she could fully lose herself in Solipsism Syndrome again; see her mom, pretend she was back on Earth. It was impossibly boring in prison except for when they brought her back to question her again and then tell her when her hearing was. She didn’t know if she had the right to a speedy trial up here. She wondered how old Rose would be when she was sentenced.

From their research, there was such limited space on the moon that they had a few dedicated prison Rhizomes, but that sentencing was shorter; life was a sentence meted out only for murder, lucky her.

Diana, for her part, was stuck.

**

The kid didn’t understand at first why her mom wasn’t coming back. Her dad did, so mom should right?

Aoi remembered thinking the same thing when Mom came home from trying to find Dad. She wasn’t Mom anymore after that, just a ghost until she died. He was old enough to remember, even if at the time he didn’t understand what was going on. At least up here they had no news broadcasts to contend with, to hide from Rosemary.

It was ‘When Mommy comes back,’ this and ‘Save that for Mommy,’ that. Then once it was ‘But Mommy didn’t do anything bad,’ and then silence. Eerie, adultlike silence. Another, younger ghost.

Carlos was a fucking disaster any time he thought his daughter couldn’t see him. Akane’s silence was a stark contrast to his hidden tears. She always did get quiet when she was angry. Her partner was just taken from her and she would snatch him back like Demeter tried Persephone, though something told him Junpei was not getting out of this in six months.

He saw her cry once, when her kid wouldn’t stop crying either, Akane saying, “It’s like he knows.”

“He knows something is wrong with you,” he tried to comfort her. “Be strong.”

Akane only glared at him.

He was doing his best to be her rock in the storm, but it still wasn’t enough. He’d poked around and found that, yes, something was fishy about the timing of those investors showing up and then of the sudden criminal investigation. What connected them was a member of Free the Soul who ran in Aoi’s circles, another broker who made his money in real estate. Rhizome-9 wasn’t located in a particularly advantageous space, but it was just that—more space. More room. Its inhabitants were inconsequential, if unusual. The results of the experiment had been whatever they had been, and they’d never heard of it again after it was completed. They’d been strongly suggested to do more, but the threat of blackmail from that research Aoi and Light had stolen from Rhizome-18 loomed large enough to keep them away.

This was simply a way to make them comply, go away, whatever.

As usual when he was having ideas, he went first to Akane, then the Fields, who agreed, and then to Sigma. He explained his theory and Sigma rubbed his temples and asked what they were supposed to do about that.

“Can we sell them any space here whatsoever?” Aoi asked.

“What? No, it’s ours.”

“Well the number one rule when you’re in fucking jail is give the people what they want. If we agree to split the space that might appease them. They have a tight case against us, and they can push to take all of us in if they feel like it.”

Sigma was torn. “But then we’re back under someone else’s thumb. No going home.”

“We were never going to go home.”

They agreed to open negotiations, with a rigged communication channel Sean and Sigma had managed to set up with hours of work. Sigma called on said investors, who were willing to hear them out. They didn’t tip their hand and admit to muddying the waters with the investigation, but they did imply they’d put in a good word if the 9ers agreed.

At first they wanted the entire Rhizome, but they talked them down to rights to half of it, not including the spaces the group needed to live. They had one more condition. They wanted to experiment on them again. Just take some genetic material, they insisted, nothing suspect.

Sigma and Aoi insisted they had to talk to the group, and the investors gave them one day to decide.

The emergency meeting was terse; nobody trusted them, but nobody had a better answer for what to do about Junpei, Diana, and themselves.

“What is the worst thing they could do?” Aoi said weakly.

They had their deal the next day.

**

When Junpei and Diana came back, Rosemary didn’t cry. She stood tall and lit up when she saw her Mommy, ran to her. It made Junpei smiled to see them hugging again, Diana definitely crying and Rose sniffing but just saying, “Mommy, welcome home,” warmly. Carlos got down and held them both. When they were done then it was Phi’s turn to strangle Diana with a hug. By the time the whole affair was over with Junpei had been squeezing his own wife and son for many minutes.

Phi came over to him next and though they didn’t hug as that wasn’t their relationship, she smiled at him and nodded. Aoi patted his shoulder.

It was good to be...home.

Yeah. He was home.

The first thing he did was give his son a bath, then put him down for a nap as apparently he hadn’t been sleeping well since Junpei left. As if sensing his mothers’ anxiety.

Then he kissed Akane, and held her tightly again.

“What did I miss?”

Akane caught him up on the deal.

“I don’t like it. What if they try to take more?”

“That’s always a risk, but,” she shrugged, “We wanted you two. And everyone’s thinking about splitting up anyway, it seems.”

“Really?” He and Akane had gone exploring sure, but decided Rhizome-9 was the place to be. It was their home, it was where Osamu was born not too long ago. He couldn’t imagine sharing it with other people, strangers. Strangers here to experiment again, strangers _still_ experimenting on him.

“Yes. Carlos says he wants to take Diana home, niichan and the Fields will be going back to work as soon as this is over, and Phi…”

“Phi what?”

“Well, she wants to stay where Sigma is, and Sigma is looking for a job in Rhizome-37. He says it’s time to ‘let go of the past.’”

“Easy for him to say.”

“Maybe he’s right.” She looked down at Osamu, gently stroked his back. “We have a reason to move forward now.”

Junpei put his hand over hers on Osamu. “Where would we go?”

“Follow Phi, at first. I can convince her to come with me after that. Then we travel with niichan. And then…”

“We build a new home?”

“Exactly.”

Junpei didn’t know what that would look like, or what to do next, but he knew his wife and son were with him, and that was a lot.


	2. A stem of wild flowers

“We did not agree to this.” Junpei put his palms down on the table, emphatic. He looked at the three scientists before him. They were in his family’s quarters, Phi at his side and Akane backing them up, though busy with the other guests. “You took our genetic material, we gave up rights to it. This is your project, your problem.”

The scientist raised his hands. “And the rights to your genetic material revert to you in the event that the experiment was scrapped. It was scrapped. These children are your genetic material. They are your ‘problem.’”

Junpei pinched the bridge of his nose. “But we didn’t— We couldn’t have—”

“What he means is why now? Why abandon this project?” Phi said, crossing her arms. Junpei wished his natural negotiators were afoot but they were out and about the Rhizome system, leaving Junpei to deal with this chaos by himself.

The chaos at this time was three toddlers, not any toddlers he’d raised, that were currently one spinning in circles, another falling asleep on Akane, and a third stood off to the side, aloof. The spinner was the spitting image of Akane. The sleepy one was Sigma. The aloof one, a little girl, had watchful eyes and red hair, which could make her either Phi or Diana. Phi kept glancing at that one.

“The costs of getting it off the ground ballooned, and then the foster families pulled out… It’s just been a mess from beginning to end, and I’ll be happy to wash my hands of it. So now they’re yours.” The scientist gestured to the children in turn; to the spinner, “She’s Theta,” and to the sleeper, “He’s Eta,” and to the last, “and she’s Rho.”

“What happened to the others?”

“They didn’t survive the test tubes. Listen, if you don’t want ‘em, the only thing they’ve got waiting for them is a needle.”

“Get out,” Junpei said. “Get the hell out.”

“He means we’ll take them,” Phi said, resigned.

The scientists cleared out without a word to the children. Phi busied herself trying to get the redhead to come to her, but the little girl shook her head and stepped back. From Akane’s side, Osamu eyed her as if uncertain if he liked this development. Junpei understood his trepidation. When he woke up this morning to hear they had visitors, he thought it would be a delegation for Akane, who’d become a politician in their new Rhizome.

He was not expecting a group of scientists who’d colonized Rhizome-9 and three experiment subjects, just babies really. The spinner, Theta, had halted and she looked around, curious and unafraid like her...like her mother. She couldn’t be more than two, only two years younger than Osamu.

“So they’re just leaving them?” Akane said in disbelief. She was rubbing Eta’s back, as he had fully passed out on her shoulder.

“Yeah. Funny how we only belong to ourselves when they don’t want to take responsibility for what they’ve done,” Junpei muttered. “What are we supposed to do with three kids?”

“The same thing we did with the one we made,” Akane said. “We’re the safe haven.”

“The alternative was,” and Phi drew her finger across her throat.

“Then doubly so,” Akane said. She smiled as Eta made a pleased noise into her shirt. “If it’s our job, it’s our job,” she added, considering Theta with almost glee. She had another of herself in her grasp; who knew what she saw there. “The first order of business is getting them to sleep. They’re exhausted and came a long way,” she cooed, kneeling down to Theta’s level. The two made eye contact and whatever invisible conversation they had had Theta shaking her head. 

Theta’s childish mind whipped out, making contact with anyone receptive. She thought of a white-walled room, a stuffed monkey left behind, a warm lady who always smelled like peppermint. She felt like loneliness and confusion.

Junpei opened his arms at the same time he sent her acceptance and a desire to comfort her, thoughts of how safe her soon-to-be-older brother felt with them, and how she would too. He sent her a stuffed cat, just in case. 

She responded in kind with a wordless question.

 _Yes,_ he replied both in words and without, _You’re wanted. You’ll be safe here. We’ll love you._

Theta took a step towards him.

Akane was right; their first order of business was to put the kids to bed lest meltdowns be incurred. The three bristled at being separated, so the adults settled for making it a sleepover on the bedroom floor, in a mound of blankets and pillows. Osamu reluctantly shared his stuffed toys.

“The first thing we have to do is change their names,” Junpei remarked to Akane as they took their first shift. Osamu was with Phi. “The ones they have are…” Well, awful, but—and he felt bad when among his friends were a ‘Phi’ and a ‘Sigma’—something about them felt dehumanizing. Loving parents had picked out Phi and Sigma’s names; these were experiment designations, with no regard for meaning or heritage.

“If they’re getting new lives, they need new names.”

“What is this to you?” Junpei asked, knowing his wife very well at this point. Osamu’s power had not progressed beyond the level he’d shown as a baby, but Theta was in comparison articulate, open, and capable. And younger than her surrogate brother, so _malleable_...

That was what Akane saw.

“I won’t do this if you’re going to make them experiments all over again,” Junpei threatened, half-hearted.

In her sleep, Theta whined. Akane stood and went over to her, petting her hair until she settled. The kids had had a big day and their dreamy thoughts revolved around rice cereal and starchy sheets. They coalesced in his brain, three times the need, three extra mouths, three more little people to give kisses to and watch grow up.

“They’ll be our children,” Akane promised.

“But who’s taking who?” They had alerted the other 9ers to this new development and the mood of the day was shock. Diana had wanted them to reconvene immediately, and Junpei agreed with her. He was going to need more hands with four kids, and besides it had been too long since they were all together. Aoi and the Fields were hesitant but Aoi swore he’d be there if he was needed. Sigma was oddly quiet about it.

“Obviously, Miho is mine.”

“Miho?”

“Theta. I wanted to rename her ‘Miho.’ It’s what I would’ve called Osamu if he’d been a girl.”

“I guess that leaves Eta and Rho to Sigma and…”

“Phi,” Akane said with surety. “Phi.”

“Technically then, I guess Rho is ours too.” 

Akane smiled. “Which leaves the mystery of Eta.”

“It’s up to Sigma.”

“I guess so.”

Akane smiled on them again and stood up, coming to Junpei and hugging his neck. “Thank you.” She already knew she was getting what she wanted: more pupils, more proteges, more heirs. And Junpei would love them and raise them and make them human. Because Akane had shifted her gaze, if it had ever been there, from the past to the future. She wanted, needed a new generation to leave something to.

And here they were, including her son and hopefully Rosemary. Just soft and sweet as could be, now that they were asleep.

“We need to go home,” she announced, and Junpei knew yet again she would have her way.

**

Since the experiment had been abandoned, so was Rhizome-9 for the moment. Per Akane’s request, everyone gathered there in short order. The warehouse was as good a place as any to congregate.

The kids were curious about the other kids.

“Mom, where did they come from?” Rose asked. Like her father, she was tall for her age of nine. She wore her hair in a long braid that she played with incessantly as she considered the toddlers.

“Another Rhizome,” Diana said. “They live here now.”

“They do? Well who’s their parents?”

“I guess we are.”

“What!”

Osamu was quietly judgmental from behind his mother’s legs, unused to sharing her adoration with anyone else, much less that of his other two parents.

Akane fussed over Miho, and Eta gravitated to Carlos, tugging at his knee and saying, “Up,” insistently until Carlos picked him up. Carlos was a popular attraction for small children; Junpei guessed it was his overall refreshing vibe.

Sean and Rho had taken to each other, Rho fascinated by rubbing his dome head and Sean tolerating it but also being gentle with her. She was interested in the toy stuffed dog he held, not Rose’s but his own, a present from Phi after Gab passed.

“When are they going home?” Osamu said quietly, as he did everything. Shy and usually hiding behind Akane, Junpei hoped that Osamu, well, grew up someday.

“This is their home now.”

“No way,” he grumbled.

“No way,” Miho copied.

Sometimes their little thoughts drifted back to where they’d come from, their missing people, and it was curious to Junpei that they could miss anything there, but then it was all they’d ever known. They’d never had someone hold them all night after a nightmare or rub their tummy when they were sick or even carry them on their shoulders, hence why Eta found it so fascinating. Carlos had lifted him onto his own shoulders and now walked him in a circle to amuse him.

Sigma kept looking at him and then looking away.

“Well,” Akane said, pouncing on this, “what are you going to name him?”

After a moment, Sigma mumbled, “I didn’t agree to this,” and left the room.

“Sigma!” Phi said, looking between Rho and him before following him. 

Sean apologized to Rho for her weird family. Junpei took Rho from him and balanced her on his hip, as she was starting to project anxiety and loneliness.

“Get used to that,” he said lightly. “We’re always awkward.”

**

Phi caught up to Sigma by the formerly abandoned crew quarters and pushed him inside of one, bolstered by her annoyance. It was a Phi superpower, Junpei always said. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on? You’re acting like this is normal! There is a—”

“You’ve had a clone before.”

“And I don’t want another one!”

“But Kyle—”

Sigma threw his arms down and looked pained. “Isn’t here. He’s not anywhere. I don’t care if this child is another me.”

“Sigma.” She thought of her own son, softening, and of herself. It was weird, but here they were. “What are we supposed to do with him, then?”

“You can take him,” he said softly. “You’re strong enough to do it.”

“I thought you would’ve grown past that,” Phi said. “Feeling sorry for yourself. It’s very unbecoming of your age.”

“Hmph.”

“You don’t have to raise him,” she tried, “But he’s going to have questions about who you are one day. Can you at least answer those?”

“He’ll be his own person. Like Kyle was.” He was always difficult to read whenever Kyle came up, sometimes sad, sometimes regretful, sometimes impassive. Now he looked...thoughtful. “But not with me.”

“Okay, okay. Just...be kind to him. I think this’ll be an all hands on deck project.”

“What do you think I am?”

“A dumbass.”

He laughed weakly.

Phi left him to collect himself, and went back to the kids, drawn to Rho, who was her but not. Rho was pretty independent; she wandered new spaces without fear, walked up to anybody, and didn’t cry when exposed to uncertain stimuli like Eta did. Phi thought ‘Rho’ was a perfectly nice name, though she didn’t like where it had come from. Phi’s father thought her name had been good enough; her mother thought that ‘Delta’ had been a good name. 

She wanted little Rho to understand that you could come from any beginning and still be a worthy person. Even a lone bastard was worthy of love, in the end.

“Her name is Thalia, but her middle name is Rho,” she announced, before getting down on one knee and offering Thalia some chalk to draw on the warehouse floor. Happily, Rho ground it into the floor to make colorful dust and then was more interested in smearing it across her fingers, and then her face.

“Okay,” Diana said. “Does Sigma…?

“No.”

“Then Carlos and I thought of a name we like for this little guy,” she said, squeezing Eta’s hands. “Finn. If Rose had been a boy, it would’ve been her middle name.”

“Do you like that?” Rose asked him, nodding so Finn would copy her. She’d learned Osamu would do that as a baby and used it to say that Osamu too wanted to stay up late or eat extra candy.

“We didn’t just want to, uh, steal him,” Carlos continued. “So we wanted to give him Sigma’s last name.”

“Well, being Sigma’s best friend, I grant permission,” Phi said. It should’ve been her last name, too. It was hers to give away, to her new little brother.

“Miho, Thalia, and Finn. Those are nice names,” Akane said. Miho trailed over to Thalia and proceeded to play with her chalk, sitting parallel and occasionally dabbing at each other’s arms with it. “Oohh, no, no,” Akane said.

Junpei laughed and took a swipe through the chalk and daubed Akane’s nose with it. She glared at him. Carlos set Finn down so he could join them, his sisters. The other two kids hovered, curious, before Rosemary started to draw and entreated Osamu to join her.

So the first day with their new brood passed.

**

“Wow,” Aoi repeated, unable to believe what he was seeing: a double of his sister. Two Akanes might be better than one, he thought.

“I know. But she’s really good! I wonder if anyone played with her over there… She acts like she doesn’t know how.” Akane looked guilty for something that wasn’t her fault. Tiny Akane—Miho—watched him and with surprise he noticed she was transmitting to him, wordless, ‘Who’s that?’

Aoi smiled and sent her back a little vision of himself, smaller, hugging an Akane her age. Miho started and looked up at Akane, then at Aoi, and then at Akane’s urging she shyly stepped forward and put her hand on his thigh.

“I guess we have to fix that,” he said.

“I’m not a babysitter,” Clover announced, though not turning tiny Sigma away when he pulled at her skirt.

“Agreed,” her brother said.

“It’s my niece,” Aoi told him later. “She’s kinda guaranteed to be here.”

“I know, it’s just… Children,” he said weakly. “You know how I feel about children.”

“Yeah, my child doesn’t play well with others,” Aoi quipped.

“Oh be quiet.”

Aoi winked at him though he couldn’t see it.

“Please just no diapers. Please. My sense of smell is heightened.”

“Oh did I make you do anything for Osamu?”

“Nearly!”

“Grow up.”

Aoi walked the Rhizome, leaving the Fields to relax. His sister was bathing her littlest ones, Osamu looking unhappy to be sharing the attention even though Uncle being near always made him happy.

Carlos bumped into him, relaxing by the garden.

“How goes things?”

“Well, you know, nobody wants to give you something for nothing.” Aoi regretted that things always felt a little bit awkward between them. “Are those assholes still coming by?” For years after departing Rhizome-9, everyone had reported being harassed by the agents who’d arrested Diana and Junpei. They already had Rhizome-9, Aoi didn’t know what the hell else they wanted, and he’d told them off many times.

“Not for a while.” Carlos looked around instead of at Aoi. “It’s nice to be back. There are a lot of memories here.”

“A lot of bad ones, maybe.”

“You’re right, but…” Carlos scratched his chin, the bit of scruff there drawing Aoi’s eye. “Despite it all, some good happened here. Thanks for coming back.”

“Nowhere better to be,” Aoi thought. Here, he was needed.

**

Finn spoke more now, in the two-to-three word sentences Diana remembered from when Rose was that age. He was shy and slow to speak, but maybe that just made him thoughtful. He did seem awfully contemplative when he chose between cereal and fruit for breakfast, or which blanket for a nap.

The shine was coming off the apple for Rose, who realized she had to share Daddy now. “Why can’t Phi watch him?” she complained once.

“Because he picked us,” Diana said while struggling to get Finn dressed. He was whining and fighting her by stiffening his arms and legs when she tried. Truth be told, Diana had hoped Sigma would come around but he was still uncomfortable, though not unkind, around Finn. He paid more attention to Thalia, maybe because she was Phi’s daughter. “Hey, hey, Phi is waiting,” she coaxed.

At her name, Finn looked curious; a Sigma could not resist a Phi, it seemed. She felt bad how often she projected Sigma on to him still, expecting them to have the same likes and dislikes, but Finn was so young. He could be anything he wanted to be.

Rose was unhappy with this answer and continued to play with her toy dog. “I wanna hang out with Sean.”

“I bet he’d like that.”

After struggling with Finn and winning, Diana ushered them out of the crew quarters and into the garden. Everyone was waiting for a little tea party, something to distract the kids for a bit and for the adults to blow off steam. Akane had brewed tea and made tiny sandwiches and the toddlers mushed them into the grass while Rosemary tried to copy the adults and Osamu tried to feed Phi and his mother alternating bites of his sandwich.

Times like this Diana didn’t miss her job. She thought about it constantly back home; being a doctor was draining but she was proud of herself for sticking it out. She fought to return after the investigation and won, and she didn’t regret that. Looking around the room, though, she wondered if she wasn’t missing out by being far from her whole family.

The kids exhausted themselves, and Rose, sensing whenever the adults were going to have a boring talk, corralled Osamu with the promise of playing pool with Sean. Osamu’s concept of ‘playing pool’ was clapping the balls together and swinging a cue around, but he had fun.

“What if those guys come back for the clones?” Clover said.

“We’re not letting them experiment on them,” Akane said decisively.

“Though they want to.”

Diana tuned the rest out; it was depressing to be in her thirties and constantly fighting like this, unsure if she could ever protect her baby from some type of chaos.

She found Rosemary, told her that the adults were being boring and that pool was more fun.

“Being an adult sounds boring,” Rose concluded.

“I think so too. Don’t rush it.”

**

“Papa,” Osamu complained, tugging on his sleeve again. He didn’t need to say more. He wanted more attention than Junpei could split between him, Miho, and his studies. He was analyzing the travel patterns of the visiting scientists, trying to connect where they were going with why they’d be doing it. He thought if he could figure out their patterns, he could discern their motives, and thus find a way to convince them to back off. Or blackmail them.

Having one child begging for his attention and another, Miho, sleeping nearby was putting a cramp in that. Thalia was with Phi and Akane in the library.

“Okay, okay,” he said gently, before taking his son’s hand and turning away from his screen. Osamu was little for his age, like Junpei had been before puberty, and not very chatty, unlike Junpei. Truth be told Junpei felt a little guilty because he couldn’t spend more time on him, but the logistics had tripled by the addition of three mouths. It was a hard sell to convince the other Rhizomes to give them increased supplies for the same amount of time, energy, labor, or credit. Every moment Junpei was awake he was worrying over children or supplies or repairs; even trying to be a good husband seemed to be falling by the wayside.

Osamu lead him to his little corner of the room, pointing at some construction he’d made of blocks and toys Junpei thought he had outgrown. “This is my Rhizome.”

“I see. What does it do?”

“We’re sci-en-tists,” he said proudly. “We’re figuring out how to bring the animals back.”

“Really?” Junpei crouched down, reaching for a triangular block and tilting it to make a new structure. “Do you have any cheetahs?”

“Yeah! Like five.”

They continued to discuss what extinct animals did and did not exist at the fantasy Rhizome, and Junpei asked how they did it.

“We cloned them like they did Miho.”

“Huh?”

“They made Miho. We made the animals.”

So he didn’t understand ‘cloning’ quite yet, but he took in more than they realized. “Yeah. Miho’s not an animal though, she’s your baby sister.”

“She didn’t come from Mama.”

“She did, just in a different way. I’ll explain when you’re older.”

“You always say that,” Osamu said, disappointed. Phi always chided him for assuming Osamu couldn’t understand something just because he was little, but Phi’s stories of her own childhood, being raised by scientists who treated her more like a peer than their daughter, left Junpei doubting her perception.

“Yeah, I do. Because right now you should be my little boy,” Junpei said, chucking him under the chin.

“Not a baby.”

“Not anymore, I guess.”

Miho stirred behind them, mumbled ‘Fiiii-in,’ and sat up with her hair a mess. “Hungry,” she announced to the air, expecting someone would fulfill the need. She’d grown accustomed to people doing that instead of waiting and waiting, endless waiting she showed in her memories of the lab. Waiting for someone to come back, waiting to see her friends again, waiting for someone to so much as change her. The littlest ones still tended to stuff their faces to the point where they got sick, so the adults had to mete out their dinners a few bites at a time.

“Wait a little bit,” Junpei promised. “I need to play with oniichan.”

Miho twisted her lips, and expecting a tantrum, Junpei sighed. Osamu picked up a block, walked over to her, and offered it. “Play,” he said, not a request but an order.

They looked at each other, having a silent conversation that Junpei could only perceive ripples of; their level of communication was instinctual, a higher level that he had to focus on to tell. Miho still pouted, but she slid out from under her blanket and took the block, following Osamu back to Junpei. 

“Play?” she asked, still always a bit confused by the subject.

“Like this,” Osamu said, and pushed her to sit down before sitting beside her.

**

When the three kids got together their communication was electric, yet silent. One could feel it in the air but not hear it. They were communicating without language, like glycerin, and it made them seem older than they were. Having the clones around seemed to draw in Osamu and Rose, who until then had been unremarkable. The five were powerful and formed their own network like the adults.

It was fascinating to Phi the scientist and terrifying to Phi the mother. She knew the world wasn’t kind to people who were different. Power could be misinterpreted as cruelty. Eccentricity could be perceived as danger. The adults with kids decided to stay in Rhizome-9 for a little longer.

Thalia remained herself; she started trying to climb things, fascinated by everything she’d never been allowed to explore before. She wanted all the new experiences, the new sensations, the new foods, the new methods of play. She took it all in and transmitted her findings like a proper scientist to her cloned siblings.

Phi was charmed. As Thalia’s hair grew long enough to play with she started to pull it out, so Phi pulled it back into little pigtails, tiny braids, fine ponytails. Thalia didn’t hate her red hair. Thalia was confident in every part of herself.

“They won’t live past their thirties,” Sigma would mutter when entreated to get close to them.

“What the hell is your problem, they’re babies,” Phi said.

“Nothing, just saying,” he said.

“Well try to cheer up,” she said, saccharine and mocking. “They could use an adult in their lives who’s not totally insane.”

Thalia was a clone; she would be infertile and short-lived, but didn’t have to be unhappy, Phi thought. Phi could fill her life with knowledge and stories and jokes and loving words.

“What happened to your plan to go back to the past?” he said, mocking also.

“It’s...delayed,” she said. Truth be told, she gave up on it when Osamu was born and she knew Akane would never go back and abandon her child. Hell, Phi had flirted with giving up when Rosemary was born, even. When one day she woke up and realized she had lived on the moon for years and years and it felt normal now. That at least one Phi would always have to live this life, no matter how many times she jumped, so why not her?

And now she had her daughter.

Sigma scoffed.

Akane was more optimistic, aglow with everything they’d be capable of someday. How this was the biggest find of their lives. She was blinded in a different way, but she didn’t care.

“If we raise them right, we could—”

“Just let them be kids?” Phi was bothered by what Sigma pointed out, that they wouldn’t have long lives. So why not fun ones, doing whatever they wanted?

“They’ll be better than that.”

Phi swallowed.

**

Months passed, then another year, and as the kids got more comfortable with spoken language they grew bolder.

“I don’t have to!” Miho protested. “I’m not tired!”

Aoi rubbed his temples; behind him his partner laughed at his misfortune for drawing the argumentative Miho card.

“I say so...” he started to say, before remembering that that had never worked on Akane.

“Why?”

“Because you will be tired!”

“Dear,” L called from the bed. “Come here and help me read.”

Miho, flattered to be needed, crawled into bed with him. She could care less about the contents of his Braille book, but she would transmit to him whatever his words conjured in her mind. Mr. “I despise children” was soft for Miho, and could convince her to sit still and sing to her and once rubbed her scalp after she threw up on Aoi.

“That’s an interesting whale,” he said, pausing his reading to her about marine biology.

“What’s a whale?”

“A very, very large oceanbound mammal. Picture something half the size of our home.”

“Okay.” Miho yawned. “Mister, would you sing to me?”

“If it will help you sleep, my dear.” He started to hum, building up to a song he’d written for them (again, ‘I hate children’) about the moon and the sea. “...She fell asleep on my arm.”

“Take it off.”

“My biological arm, Aoi.”

“I’ll save you,” Aoi said quietly, lifting a sleeping Miho up and tucking her into Aoi’s bed. After years of cosleeping they finally admitted they hated sharing a bed together even if they could share a life. Aoi kissed her head, then went to kiss his partner. “Thanks.”

“If it makes her be quiet,” he muttered.

“You wait until she’s six. Akane was even worse.”

“Joy.”

But...fuck it, Aoi was a sucker for cuddling in the end. They curled up together and held tight. Dozing off, he mumbled, “You’re gonna miss her.”

“Perhaps.”

They were babysitting Miho before they left the facility again. They had friends in other Rhizomes who’d offered to take them in until they found their footing again. It was taking time to gather the capital they’d need to take back the Rhizome; Akane usually tuned him out when he started talking details.

“It’s a lot of work,” Aoi said.

“I know. But it’s worth it. You’re doing fine.”

“What made you all sappy?”

“Mmmm.”

**

All told, Junpei liked having kids. Osamu, Miho, and Thalia looked at him like they worshipped him, even if they challenged him all the time, too. As Miho spent quality time with her uncle, Thalia embraced Junpei like a father, at Phi’s permission. It had always bothered Phi, she admitted, that she hadn’t known her biological parents, and though Junpei wasn’t one, that he intended to be a dad was enough.

He read to Thalia before putting her to bed, gave her a kiss goodnight, and then tucked her in.

“Goodnight, Papa,” she said. Her little braid was coming loose and though he knew she’d pull it all out like a ribbon unfurling he let it be. He was better at hair than, say, Carlos, but not as good as Akane was.

“Here’s your cat,” Junpei said, handing her her toy. “Are you okay by yourself if Papa leaves?”

“Yeah!”

Junpei found his wife with Sigma, not an unusual occurrence. They still worked together in the lab sometimes, on Sigma’s little projects or Akane’s. They were good teammates, in the end.

“Are you sure you won’t come?” Akane said. “Finn would love to know you.”

“I know, but...I can’t.”

“I understand, but rejecting Finn won’t bring back Kyle.”

“He’s not my son, he’s theirs now. They can take care of him.”

“Someday he’ll have questions.”

“And I’ll answer them. But for now...”

Junpei slipped back, hearing all he’d needed to hear. His children needed him now. He was going to return to his old life and make a great one for them.

**

Everyone scattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i own this mindless fluff, i DO.


End file.
